The Rubik's Cube of Sam and Freddie
by jamiewalsh
Summary: Freddie teaches Sam how to solve a Rubik's Cube, and they both reflect on the past month without each other. Post iLove You. Seddie oneshot. Hope you like it!


**A/N: Wow, it's been awhile! Anyways, hope all my fellow Seddie fans are doing well, and I hope you enjoy this new fanfic. I have a Rubik's Cube that sits on my desk and I will randomly mix it up and solve it when I'm bored. My ex taught me how to solve a Rubik's Cube and it was on the night that he taught me how to solve it that we started dating, so I was missing him today and I was solving the Cube, so I was inspired to write this! Hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own iCarly. Damn it…**

_**New text message from Princess Puckett:  
><strong>_"_FREDDERLY! You need to help me with this damn cube! I hate admitting defeat, but this inanimate object is kicking my butt. I need you and your nerdy brain to help me solve it."_

Freddie smiled at the new text he had just received. Sam had recently stolen Carly's long-forgotten Rubik's Cube and was bragging about how it can't be as difficult as everyone claims it is. Carly occupied her time with it at Webicon during the fanwar, but gave up soon after, knowing she wouldn't be able to do it. Sam, on the other hand, thinking she can do anything, took the Cube, planning to solve it in a matter of minutes. But it appeared that not even the amazing Ms. Puckett could solve it.

He began to text her back.

**"What happened to your over-confidence? 'Oh, everyone's just a baby, it can't be that bad!' And after you teased Carly about not being able to do it too…"**

_"I know, I'm pathetic, I get it. Thanks for reminding me, Benson. You gonna help me or not?"_

**"Oh, I'll show you how to do it, but I will never let you live this down. I get to mock you about this for the rest of your life."**

_"Go ahead and tease me, nub. I can easily whoop your butt if you do."_

**"Lol, come over whenever you want and I'll show you."** Before he could even send the text, though, he heard a knocking at his window. He looked over to see his blonde ex-girlfriend standing on the fire escape outside of his window.

He went to let her in. "Wow, I didn't even get to text you back," he said.

"I was on my way over here when I sent you the first one. I was going to make you show me how to do it whether you liked it or not," she said with a smile, pulling the Rubik's Cube out of her baggy grey sweatshirt's pocket and handing it to him. The white side of the Cube was entirely solved. "I managed to figure out the white side, but every time I'd get close to figuring out another side, the white one would get messed up."

"You're not supposed to solve by side, you're supposed to solve by row," Freddie explained patiently.

"_You're supposed to solve by row_," Sam copied in a nasal voice.

"Hmm, I guess I don't have to show you how to solve it…" Freddie joked, tossing the Cube onto his bed.

"Okay, fine, I'm sorry," Sam said, giving one of her rare apologies. "Just teach me how to do the damn thing!" She stepped up onto his bed before curling down to sit Indian style. It always amazed him how she could just go from standing up to sitting cross-legged, but he never questioned it.

He crawled onto his bed to sit across from her, mirroring her sitting position. He was suddenly aware that the last time that were on his bed together was on the night nearly a month before when they had broken up, when they had moved their elevator make-out session to his bedroom. They didn't have sex, but it was very clear in every kiss they shared and every moan they made that even when they broke up at midnight, there was no way they'd be forgetting each other so easily. He cautiously looked at Sam, and saw the embarrassed look in her eyes. She was thinking the same thing as him. He missed that night. He missed her. Why couldn't they have worked things out? He thought over that night over and over again, wishing he had told her no, wishing he hadn't agreed so readily. They would still be together if he had just insisted to Sam that he could prove they really were compatible.

He looked away as he blushed and picked up the Rubik's Cube. "Okay, now how were you trying to solve the white side?"

"I would make a cross in the center, then I found a way that I could turn the Cube so it would put the white corners on top. That was how I solved the white side, but when I tried the same thing on other sides, it messed up the already-solved white side," Sam explained exasperatedly.

"Well, you're right to start with a cross," Freddie explained patiently. "But what you're doing wrong is that you're not paying attention to the colors next to the white sides." He point at one of the small cubes that composed the overall Cube. It had a white side, then an orange one on what would be the side next to it. "See, you would put this small white square into the white cross, but you have to make sure that the sticky orange square lines up with the orange square that is in the center of one of the 3x3 sides," he said, pointed at what he meant.

As he explained how to do it, Sam only half paid attention; she was too busy watching him. As much as she teased him about being a dork, she loved how he had such a passion for everything he did. Even when he talked about his silly model trains, his excitement was contagious and she loved seeing how happy he was with his life. Sam could tease him constantly about his hobbies, but he loved what he did, and Sam was almost jealous of his commitment to what he loves.

_Even to me…_ she thought sadly. He was fully devoted to making her happy when they were together, even if it meant having to let her go when she said she thought they should break up. She regretted that night so much. Sure, they're different and maybe they don't have a lot in common, but they're Sam and Freddie. Like peanut butter and jelly, they don't have a lot of similarities, but at the end of the day, there can't be one without the other.

"And when you do that, you have the white cross at the top, but the colors connected to the white sides are also lined up with their corresponding middle colors. Do you see that?" Freddie asked, oblivious to how Sam had spaced out.

"Uh-huh," she said plainly, embarrassed that she hadn't been paying attention.

He smiled at her and continued to explain.

###

"Just turn the top layer around to match up the sides…" Freddie said, watching Sam's small fingers work the Rubik's Cube, "and there you go! You have a solved Rubik's Cube!"

Sam turned it around in her hands, seeing all the perfectly matched colors. It looked so flawless, like it had never been messed up in the first place and Sam smiled widely. "I totally would've figured it out eventually," she jokingly bragged.

"Uh-huh, whatever you say, Sam," Freddie said with a laugh. He got up from his bed and went to his computer. "Let me type up the algorithm combinations for you so you can practice some more. Soon you won't have to look at the algorithms, it'll just be muscle memory." He opened Microsoft Word and started typing.

Sam looked at the cube again, examining its perfect order, and she suddenly realized something. The Rubik's Cube was like her and Freddie; they fit perfectly together, but it's so easy to mess things up and not know how to fix it. But at the end of the day, if you know the right moves to make, you can put it back in its perfect order.

When Sam ended things in the elevator, they mixed up the Rubik's Cube and put all the colors in the wrong order. But maybe if Sam could somehow figure out how to organize them back in the right order…

"Freddie?" she said suddenly before she could chicken out.

Freddie looked up suddenly, knowing it must be serious business if Sam called him by his real name. "…Yes?"

She took a deep breath and said, "I miss you."

Freddie chuckled. "I'm sitting right here, I didn't go anywhere."

"No… I miss you, meaning I miss spending time with you. It's not the same anymore."

"Well, that's what happens when a couple breaks up. It's tough to go back to being just friends," Freddie quietly said.

"It's not fair, though! We were best friends, and now we still call each other our best friend, but it's just weird!" Sam whined.

"Look, Sam, you wanted this. You were the one who suggested we go back to being just friends," Freddie replied, frustrated at how a calm day hanging out had turned to this awkward conversation.

"Maybe I don't want this anymore!" Sam said loudly.

Freddie raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean?" he asked slowly.

"I'm sorry I ended it!" she said abruptly, moving to her feet to pace. "I didn't really want to, but my stupid pride made me hate how much people hated us together and instead of ignoring them, I couldn't stop thinking about how your mom didn't approve of us, and how Gibby hated being teased more, and how Carly had to keep mediating our arguments, and I took that to mean that we're not a good couple, but ever since I broke up with you, I keep realizing that we are a good couple and we would have eventually smoothed out all those little things that made us not 'click,' but I ended it before we had the chance to get there, and now I just keep wishing that I—"

Freddie grabbed her wrist and pulled her close to him, cutting off her rambling with his lips. Originally shocked, Sam melted into his arms, wrapping her own arms around his neck.

It took them a month, but they finally got all the colors back in order.


End file.
